Author here: When talking to an investor you are only a "sales rep" to some degree. You are the owner of a company looking to raise funding by selling a certain percentage of shares, so much is true - but the mindset is more one of finding the right partner.
Given a promising enough vision and execution there's no shortage of interested VCs and the challenge is in picking the right one for the long term. All VCs offer money, but many offer value beyond that. As the VC(s) you'll choose will hold a significant stake including board seats and voting rights you'll want someone with a deep enough understanding of your industry, technology, market, sales or operational model.
Even if we were talking about selling to a customer here I would argue that one's better off providing long-term value (and forfeiting a deal if one can't) than just catering for any buzzword-driven expectation and watch the whole edifice crumble a few months down the line
I totally agree with your points here. But just as few others have pointed out, it looks more like a "shiny object syndrome" or it could also be a bit of that the customer is not an expert of the software field and feels like he/she's gotta bring something to the table to sound credible.
Your blog post sent me far into memory lane. I still remember a case where I was a starting entrepreneur and I was selling a website remake. The customer asked me if our CMS's database was relational. He clearly did not even have a clue what that actually meant, but neither did I :) I knew it was "most probably totally irrelevant" to the whole case (just as you seemed to ponder), but my uncertainty showed. I was maybe under my 20s then, though I was very confident I could deliver. But I was no salesman, more of an enthusiast geek with a vision.
What he was basically asking me was "why should I pick your product instead of all the others? Is this person credible?". It caught me so off-guard, that I kind of froze back then and wasn't able to bring the conversation to a level where our product would be compared to the competitors. Focus on the good things etc. Maybe he did it just check, if I was actually aware of any competition!
I didn't get that contract. I still remember it as a lesson learned in many levels and your blog post somehow reminded me of that moment. Can't really say if they are comparable, but there you have it :)
ps. My first thought today could be more like "what is this person scared of the most in this situation, where does this kind of question stem from?". A great sales rep might ask that question directly back. Cheers!
Given a promising enough vision and execution there's no shortage of interested VCs and the challenge is in picking the right one for the long term. All VCs offer money, but many offer value beyond that. As the VC(s) you'll choose will hold a significant stake including board seats and voting rights you'll want someone with a deep enough understanding of your industry, technology, market, sales or operational model.
Even if we were talking about selling to a customer here I would argue that one's better off providing long-term value (and forfeiting a deal if one can't) than just catering for any buzzword-driven expectation and watch the whole edifice crumble a few months down the line